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Announcing

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Education on Demand

I thought by now there would be no movie theaters. I
have nice TVs and sound systems at home, subscriptions to various movie services and
if I want it, video on demand that I can pay for. I never have to leave the
house or put up with annoying people sitting next to me.

Still people (even I) go to the movies. They do it to get
out of the house, to see an even bigger screen with better sounds and to keep
current with the latest offerings that are being talked about in their circle
of friends.

You get the feeling that movie theaters still won’t be
around much longer anyway. But people who run the movie business are fighting
this in every way they can.

61% of adults said that they
rarely or never go out to the movies.Of those who do go to the movies,55%said that they go see
films less often now than they did before. 73% prefer watching
movies at home. Many in the industry are scared to death of DVDS being released
at the same time as the movie itself.“The theater industry is facing something of a crisis. Theater owners
don’t quite get that going to the movies is a social experience, and that they
need to make that social experience a lot more enjoyable.”

Well, of course, I am
not worried about the movie industry. I am just an observer who takes note that
when something is available on demand at home or in your favorite place for
social experience with others, its appeal in the standard bricks and mortar
public format will go away.

Of course I am talking
about education. Why would anyone go to school or put up with the annoyance of
school regulations, certifications, classroom situations, and being
told what you must learn when, if they didn’t have to? Schools were designed for poor
people. The rich had private tutors who came to them, or failing that an elite
upper class venue where they were treated respectfully. (Do Oxford students
still have personal butlers?)

Today school is a
miserable mass experience for everyone. Yes, it fun to go to Yale, but there are
plenty of lost, bored, and angry kids at Yale too. (They all seemed to find
their way to me when I was there.)

If we had education on
demand, wouldn’t this be as threatening as movies on demand to the existing
system?

So, in that spirit, I
am announcing “Education on Demand.” We will offer, and by "we" I mean my team of respected computer science professors (XTOL, http://xtolmasters.com/) on line short
courses that can be taken on demand (more or less, they will have start dates
so students can work in small teams with mentors.)

Below is a list of
short courses we will offer starting in January 2013. These courses run about
two week full time and four weeks part time. More are coming. They are open to
anyone who wants to take them. They are meant to teach people to do things that
might need to do. We will issue a certificate to hang on your wall if you like
signed by the relevant faculty. Students succeed by actually doing things. No
lectures. No tests. Just producing. Open to anyone, anyone at all. Just do the
work.

Introduction to Website Development

Web Application Development

Mobile Web Application Development

Native Mobile Application Development for Web
Programmers

Sensor-based Mobile Applications Introduction
to ecommerce

Search Engine Optimization

eCommerce Data Analytics

Big Data Software and System Requirements

Managing Software Professionals

Setting Software Projects Up for Success

Team-Based Agile Software Development

We are building more of
these every day. There will be short courses in other areas than computer science soon
(starting with learning sciences.) We are in discussions with industry on
building other short courses that industry feels it needs. Feel free to contact us about
courses we should build.

In summary:

Learning by doing

Deliverables that prove you
can do something you couldn’t do before

Working in teams

Enhancing your employable
skills

On line, no need to go
anywhere

Education when you want
it

The beginning of the end
of brick and mortar education

The beginning of the end
of rules about what you must do before you do what you want to do

3 comments:

I'm eager to learn more about your future courses in the learning sciences. What projects will be involved? Can you describe some of the stories in the curriculum? Will this course prepare someone to help you and Socratic Arts to design and build other learn-by-doing, story-based online courses?